(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for aspects of display in an information display apparatus that collects and displays a plurality of pieces of information about products or services presented on web pages or the like on a network.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Numerous online sales sites that sell products on the Internet currently exist. A user who accesses such a sales site is able to purchase a product by selecting from among products presented on web pages on the site, and inputting a payment method, an address, and the like. Such sales sites are increasing in number year by year, and the products sold are becoming more diverse. This is convenient for the user because various products can be purchased without visiting shops.
However, although convenient, the enormous number of such sales sites means that the user must spend much time searching sites for products, comparing prices, functions and the like of the products, and finding a product that fits the user's conditions for purchase.
For this reason, in recent years product comparisons sites have come into existence that provide users of the site with functions such as searching for products from the same category provided by a plurality of sales sites, and displaying comparison tables of the price and functions of products found as a result of such a search.
In order to provide functions such as searching and comparison tables, the administrator of a product comparison site receives submissions of product listings from sales sites and creates a database of categories and various types of items such as price and function of the products of the sales sites from which submissions have been received.
However, since a product comparison site lists only products from sales sites that have made submissions, a user is often unable to view products from a sales site whose products he or she wishes to view. Furthermore, since the comparison tables of price and functions that is provided by the product comparison site is based on items in a database created by the administrator, items that the user wishes to view may be lacking. For example, the user may wish to compare computers provided by various sales sites by weight or by the presence/absence of television tuner. However, if the administrator of the product comparison site does not include such items in the database, weight or of presence/absence of television tuner will not be displayed in the comparison table.